Political Quotes

“Reclaiming my time, in the context of what we did a year ago and the context of what is now under the guise of accountability is very different to me. I read both bills, the one we voted on last year and this bill. There is important workplace protections that do not exist in this bill, and that is my position. We cannot start off by blaming unions, blaming the VA. We have been through this before. There are some bad actors there. We are trying to get rid of them, and I want to get rid of them faster than you want to get rid of them, but I don't want to take down the whole group. We paint with a very wide brush. We have done this with other Federal agencies. The reality is that the civil service protections available to these employees and all other Federal employees actually protect whistleblowers--that is in the law already--and allow them to come forward when they see wrongdoing, without fearing some retaliation. Whistleblowers were how we discovered the problems, Mr. Chairman, in the first place. That is how we found out about what was going on in Phoenix and in some other places. Correct me if I am wrong; I think you will agree with me. I agree that poorly performing employees have no place at the VA--or any other Federal agency for that matter. We agree on both sides of the aisle. We can't--as some have said, you guys are in favor of the vets, and we are not in favor of the vets. Come on. We are away from that. We did that 15 years ago. That didn't work.…”